Susan
It’s been a tough fall for me. After my accidental personal best 10k in the middle of September there has been a whole lot of dog walking, some horse riding and nothing else. There are good reasons including a new aspect of my job that puts me in the car more, my son moving to uni that also put me in the car more with his sister that he had been driving around, peri-menopausal brain and who knows what else. This is life. My New Year is going to include listening to more music. I spend too much time with talk radio and although I love it, I’m feeling disconnected from fun and art. It’s going to include continued dog walking (because the dog demands) and horse riding. I will have to look for a way to do a Pilates something or another to start back to whatever I will get back to. That activity has always been my in to fitness. By March my daughter will have her license and maybe I’ll start running outside. Maybe we will buy the horse she’s been rehabbing. I don’t know, something will come up. For now, music and dogs. I can do that.
Catherine
New beginnings are one of my favorite things– new school year, Easter, spring time, summer break– they all fill me with optimism. The very act of imagining new plans, programs, regimens, routines, and practices makes me a little giddy.
So it is with New Years resolutions. Yeah yeah– most of them don’t stick (for good reasons). And it can be a big bummer to abandon some plan made with sincere (if not entirely realistic) intentions.
I’m reframing the whole resolution enterprise. Of course I’m listing priorities, coming up with plans/wish list. (For a comprehensive list, see my December 31 blog post.)
But I’m going to check in with myself every month to see how things are going, and write about it. That last part– the checking in honestly and curiously and kindly with myself in writing– is my real resolution. So here it is, folks: I hereby resolve to write a checkin blog post once a month to see how I’m doing with respect to priorities, plans, projects, and wish lists. Maybe we can even get a discussion going in the comments. I would love the company…
Christine
If my instructors determine that I am ready, 2018 will be the year that I test for my 3rd degree black belt. I want to be calm and assured when I go into that test so that will involve a lot of preparation – both for the specific test requirements and for my overall fitness level. Also, I have been having a lot of trouble with my back and hips lately. I’ve had a few people tell me that ‘it comes with age’ but I know that while age is factor, my issues are more likely related to how I move, sit and stand.
So, while I don’t set ‘resolutions’ per se, I do want to spend the next year feeling strong and physically capable so I am making more space in my days for movement. Specifically, I am adding daily strengthening exercises and I am setting up regular practice times to prepare for my belt test. Also, I love the idea of doing 218 workouts in 2018 and since that doesn’t clash with the other habits I am trying to establish, I am jumping on that bandwagon, too. KIYA!
Tracy I
As Cate said yesterday, I thought we usually just come out against resolutions. But maybe that’s just me because I think of resolutions as a set-up. I mean, I know about the allure of a fresh blank page that a new year represents. Hope. Possibility. Potential. I also know that in my life anything good that has ever happened has been through tiny steps, consistent effort, shifting habits, not from big plans and resolutions.
That said, I do find goals motivating sometimes, but my main goal these days is to be more relaxed about life. Hardly the stuff of which resolutions are made. I like what I’m doing already with my personal training, running, and hot yoga. I’m getting enough sleep, enjoying my friends, and loving my work. Since I expect all of that to continue apace in 2018, I’m not even feeling the temptation to make sweeping changes this year. I guess that means I’m in a good place!
Happy new year and all the best to you and yours for a fit feminist 2018!
For more resolutions by the bloggers at Fit is a Feminist Issue, look here.
My lovely neighbour and I (who inspired my resolution, in the first post) were chatting yesterday and she mentioned an article she’d read about resolving to ‘go deeper’. That is, to pick something you already do and love and see where else you can take it this year. I love this idea! It’s especially great for those of us at an activity plateau. So, for ex, if you’re Susan, maybe you push a bit deeper with Pilates, as a way to renew but also shift your fitness regime in the wake of new life realities. Or if you’re me, maybe you resolve, now that you’re with a new boat club that has robust training and competition schemes, to give a proper race a try rather than continuing to hide in the Rec division. Or maybe, if you’re just starting, you resolve to take an activity you already do and love – like dog walking, even – to a new level by making walks longer, or a bit faster, or changing up the terrain with some trails or climbing. All of these are good ways to turn existing good things into even better things.